Why Alter the Lyrics of Those Age-Old Hymns?

Published: January 13, 1996

Your Jan. 6 Religion Journal on the new hymnal of the United Church of Christ is but one more frantic example of the secularization of an organization that purports to be a Christian body.

The lengths that some revisionists have gone to change the Fatherhood of God, and to eliminate such words as "mankind," show not only a poor understanding of orthodox Christian theology but also a poor understanding of the English language.

In his motto, which graces the hymn anthology I've compiled, Sir Ronald Johnson of Edinburgh says: "What the revisers will not accept is that a hymn is a complete work of art; you can say, if you like, that you don't want to use it, but you have no right to foist your own imitation of it on the public."

DAVID PIZARRO New York, Jan. 8, 1996

The writer is a former organist and master of choristers at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.